RIAFP Policy
Brief: 3/29/01
Mandatory
Overtime
Family Physicians
are involved with all segments of the health care system, and as such
see the devastating impact hospital mandatory overtime policies have
on the lives of our colleagues who are nurses.
But hospitals,
which institute mandatory overtime policies, often have little choice.
Hospitals are understaffed, and will remain so until nurse's salaries
rise to a level that is adequate reward for the training and experience
that their profession requires.
What's going
on here? First, the cost of new technologies, such as pharmaceuticals
but also imaging and outpatient surgical technology, are growing yearly,
and those costs put pressure on health care budgets, leaving too little
room for the healing and human parts of the health care system, which
nursing and primary care represent. Second, Rhode Island's health
care system is already specialty and hospital driven, making it expensive
and less effective than it should be.
What is to be
done? In the short term, neither regulation or negotiation seems the
cure, but perhaps the threat of regulation will encourage hospitals
to address the short-term problem, and hire extra staff, if they are
to be found. In the medium term, we have to make nursing an attractive
profession, by giving nurses the respect and earnings their critical
profession deserves, and then resume training enough nurses to meet
the needs of the state.
Primary care
practices are also under reimbursed, which limits our ability to extend
open hours and take pressure off emergency rooms, and interferes with
our ability to put prevention into practice. And in the long term,
we need to build and fund a primary care driven health care system,
so we have the resources we need to run a health care system that
is, after all, personal, rational, and just.
This is one
in a series of reports designed to advance Family Practice and primary
care in Rhode Island's health care system, as well as to discuss public
health issues of importance to all Rhode Islanders.
We welcome
the opportunity to further discuss the issues presented here. We can
be reached by phone at 401-453-4176, or by email at info@riafp.org.
3/29/01
